Comments on the race of life.

Who is the boss – misogyny – the F word

I think the Furlong marriage must be one of the most old-fashioned type. I don’t expect Mr Furlong to go out and have affairs – that’s not an option in our relationship for me. I think I would hurt him unrepairably if I did the same. Our relationship would be over. Finished. Kaput. Over-cadover. We would never regain the connection that feels so safe, so comfortable, so “for life” till-we-die. We are one thing – Mr and Mrs, Mom and Dad, Nanna and Grandpa, Us.

We support each other in an old-fashioned way. He has his “man” role and I love it.

But this is not blind. There are standards too. For instance if Mr Furlong beat me, or mentally abused me, our relationship would also be over. Kaput, finished.

We have the education and know-how to not have to “endure” each other. We are equals. I’ve got some stuff he hasn’t got, and vice versa. Sometimes I’m the boss. Some times he is. If I’m clever, like millions of women before me, I can be the boss almost always…

Misogyny is the “dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women.” Mr Furlong doesn’t seem to have it but I think I have it!

I really, really dislike in-your-face Feminists. And the women who push it. That is not the same as New Feminism

The first wave of feminism took place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, emerging out of an environment of urban industrialism and liberal, socialist politics. The goal of this wave was to open up opportunities for women, with a focus on suffrage.

The second wave began in the 1960s and continued into the 1990s. This wave unfolded in the context of the anti-Vietnam War and civil rights movements and the growing self-consciousness of a variety of minority groups around the world. The New Left was on the rise, and the voice of the second wave was increasingly radical. In this phase, sexuality and reproductive rights were dominant issues, and much of the movement’s energy was focused on passing the Equal Rights Amendment to the constitution guaranteeing social equality regardless of sex.

The third phase of feminism began in the mid-1990s and is informed by post-colonial and post-modern thinking. In this phase many constructs have been destabilized, including the notions of “universal womanhood,” body, gender, sexuality and hetreronormativity. An aspect of third wave feminism that mystifies the mothers of the earlier feminist movement is the readoption by young feminists of the very lipstick, high heels and cleavage proudly exposed by low cut necklines that the first two phases of the movement identified with male oppression. Pinkfloor expressed this new position when she said; “It’s possible to have a push-up bra and a brain at the same time.”